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Hardware Hacking

The Art of Cable Folding 269

Posted by CmdrTaco from the for-the-ocd-in-you dept.
Mudzy writes "Nothing is worst than a bunch of dangling cables inside your computer case. The Tech Zone has a cool article up showing how to do Voodoo PC style cable folds. "
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The Art of Cable Folding More

The Art of Cable Folding

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  • Yeah... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:21AM (#10699002)
    voodoo'd that ass right out of commission. Mirrors?

  • Woo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by julesh ( 229690 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:21AM (#10699003)
    Zero replies and slashdotted. Well done, Tech Zone. That must be some hot server setup you have their. ;)

  • News? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by martingunnarsson ( 590268 ) * <martin&snarl-up,com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:22AM (#10699014) Homepage
    Come on, I've been doing this for years without even thinking about it, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Like, wooow, you can actually fold the cables! :-)

    • Re:News? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bdcrazy ( 817679 )
      Same here, I was doing this back before people even considered putting windows in their cases. It just makes it easier to add and remove things from the case. I was always sick of how hp/compaq/dell were always just tossing cables in the computer and made them look crappy. (btw you should have seen my breadboard computer i made at wsu, was a work of art :))

  • The Art Worst Editing (Score:5, Funny)

    by richie2000 ( 159732 ) <rickard.olsson@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:23AM (#10699026) Homepage Journal
    Nothing worst than Slashdot editors high cocaine unable check submissions. :-P

    Besides, folding IDE cables an art? Ptoii! Terminating SCSI cables is an art, this is just the locals peddling handicraft to tourists. What is this, national "Bend a cable, get on Slashdot"-day?

    • Re:The Art Worst Editing (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:34AM (#10699098)
      Welcome to the new Slashdot, were folding a ribbon cable is newsworthy. I think it's time people like you and I, and the thousands of users who have been here even longer than us, faced facts and admit that Slashdot just isn't aimed at us anymore. It has been sucked down to the land of the Lowest Common Denominator. I suspect that the vast majority of people reading this article actually think that folding a ribbon cable is the height of hardware hacking. No doubt they consider the fools with rounded 80 conductor ATA cables Gods amongst men (Luckily for the ones with the rounded cables, none of them understands the crosstalk issues, but ignorance is bliss).

      Look at the replies. Half of them are complaining about the missing "of" in the title. The other half are complaining that the site is slashdotted and are actually asking for mirrors so that they can read this "fascinating" story. No doubt they intend to rush off and fold their cables. Maybe they'll install a blue cold cathode tube while they're there.

      Slashdot began it's rapid slide downhill once they all moved away from Holland and let Timothy run amok with Your Rights Online, which simply turned Slashdot from a decent science and IT geek site into a whiny under-18's bitch fest about topics the posters barely understand. Bah.

      • Re:The Art Worst Editing (Score:4, Informative)

        by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:55AM (#10699253) Homepage
        Luckily for the ones with the rounded cables, none of them understands the crosstalk issues, but ignorance is bliss

        You can get round cables with shielding that prevents this.

        • Re:The Art Worst Editing (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          No, you get to pay a extra 15 dollars for round cables that claim to prevent this by "sheilding".

          Think about it.

          Cross talk is from cable to cable. That's why they are flat, so as to minimize the amount that their magnetic fields interact.

          Hell that's why they went from 40 cable ribbons to 80 cable ribbons. It's just to add extra space because the faster speeds increase more interference.

          It's not designed at all to prevent interference from other cables or sources of radiation.

          Also cables are kept short,
          • it was a joke, laugh.
          • BTW. I have some land in florida that I would like to sell you.

            Huh?
          • So unless each of the 40 data cables are [i]individually raped in a foil or copper AND grounded AT BOTH ENDS[/i] your cables are not sheilded AND you've been ripped off.

            Perhaps I'm lost as to the cause of cross talk, but wouldn't a straight through cable be more likely to induce cross talk than a round cable? Now, perhaps they make round cables differently than I would expect them to, but isn't this why we use round ethernet cables with circuit pairs twisted together rather than straight cables with circu
        • When 4GiB of RAM just isn't enough.

          Why have the kids started putting lower-case I's in KiB and GiB?

          /ancient, out-of-touch 26yo...

      • Re:The Art Worst Editing (Score:5, Interesting)

        by BalloonMan ( 64687 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @10:07AM (#10699357) Homepage Journal
        Slashdot just isn't aimed at us anymore

        Amen, brother. This is one of the most pathetic articles yet. I can get more useful techie information reading the back of my cereal box.

        Can we have a referendum on Slashdot editors today? After all, it's election day in America. Cast your votes, my Slashdot brethren. Click your mouse and be counted: In or out? Toss the poseurs, or give 'em another chance?
        • If slashdot is stale, no doubt the new hangout place is kept secret to keep the wannabes that supposedly infect slashdot from following.

          Wonder why no-one told me... :-)

          Sam

      • Welcome to the new Slashdot, were folding a ribbon cable is newsworthy. I think it's time people like you and I, and the thousands of users who have been here even longer than us, faced facts and admit that Slashdot just isn't aimed at us anymore.

        Geez--what a sourpuss. I have been here longer than you, and there have always been different types of stories.

        There's this thing on the right side of your browser called a scrollbar. Feel free to use it.

        Or, since you are trying really hard to show your

      • I've been waiting many, many years for a /. article that deals with this very serious cable routing issue. Now that it has finally been posted, I can delete /. from my bookmarks and get all of my tech news from news.com.com. What a relief!

    • Re:The Art Worst Editing (Score:5, Funny)

      by shis-ka-bob ( 595298 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:52AM (#10699235)
      Give the editors a break, its not like there is any real news going on today...
      • You're right, millions of people are only determining the fate of the free world (or being deluded into thinking that's what they're doing), and "Public Enemy #1" is busy releasing videos for public consumption... but no real news today, so we better post the Cable Folding article.
        • "Public Enemy #1" is busy releasing videos for public consumption...

          I thought he'd be back at his ranch in Crawford by now?

          no real news today, so we better post the Cable Folding article.

          I guess a few Diebold employees have already mastered the art of folding cables as well as ballots. Today's election fraud is tomorrow's news. Today we wallow in our ignorance of what's really going on. No news today, indeed.

  • Fold Cables....? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ninwa ( 583633 )
    Well sometimes they fold behind my desk when the desk gets smashed up against them... but seriously... what's wrong with just tossing your cables behind the desk and just let em be!?
    • OK, this story was about flat cables inside computer cases, but what the heck. I like to keep the cables behind my desk tied up nicely. Makes the whole setup look tidier, and it's a lot easier to clean. Yeah, clean. I know, I'm weird.

    • Re:Fold Cables....? (Score:4, Funny)

      by zakezuke ( 229119 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:34AM (#10699107)
      .. what's wrong with just tossing your cables behind the desk and just let em be!?

      Ask the cat that's been trapped back there for another night.
    • I'm at University, and I take my PC home during holidays as well as to and from LAN parties. Keeping the cables tidy would make it much easier - nothing's worse than having to fumble about with about 20 interlocked cables that have magically tied themselves together en route. That said, I can't be arsed.

      Oh, and as mentioned by another reply this article seems to be about internal cables. Not that I RTFA; also can't be arsed.
    • ...it seems the article is about folding of dangling cables inside your computer case...
    • You do realize they are referring to INTERNAL cables don't you? I can't say I've ever had a computer where I tossed my IDE cables behind the desk, but it sounds intriguing.

  • What a shame (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:23AM (#10699030)
    That's too bad about the Art Cable. Does anyone know why they're folding? Lack of funding, perhaps?
    • Lack of funding, perhaps?

      I don't think so - Art Cable [bensonwood.com] sounds like he's doing okay on the money front, but there's no contact info to ask him what's going on...

    • That's too bad about the Art Cable. Does anyone know why they're folding? Lack of funding, perhaps?

      Well, there's only so many documentaries about Hitler they could possibly run.

  • Uhm.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by r1ckt3r ( 302503 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:25AM (#10699045) Homepage
    do you mean "The Art Of Cable Folding"???

  • Cute, but why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chamilto0516 ( 675640 ) * <conrad.hamilton@nOSpam.gmail.com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:25AM (#10699046) Homepage Journal
    99% of my cables are round, 1% are flat. My cable management tasks are going to concentrate on the round ones that I see and in some case trip over.

    • Re:Cute, but why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by drsquare ( 530038 )
      Because not everyone wants to pay £5 for a flat IDE cable, another £5 for a flat floppy cable, and another £5 for a another flat IDE cable for the CD/DVD drives. Perhaps if rounded cables were sensibly priced then flat-cable folding wouldn't be an issue.
  • I got about 6-8 meters of cable behind my computer. This may not be much for some hardcore geeks but it's enough to give me problems. But all problems aside, the sight of all those cables at a workplace seems amazing to me :-)

    PS:- That damn site already got slashdotted. Someone mirrored?
    • Any nerd worth his keep has known this for a long time. This is not an article for professional nerds - it's an article for 15 year old nerds learning to build a peecee for the first time.

  • Dangling Cables ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fizze ( 610734 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:26AM (#10699050)
    well, on a more serious note, and as it is probably covered by the article, I set up quite some server boxes and countless PCs, and never had problems or issues with cables.
    I however, had some problems to "loose" cables installed by previous techies.

    I only experienced PCs with SCSI disks (or cables, for that matter) creating a somewhat noise airflow.
    Or, worse, they stalled the air so the heat dissipation wasnt fully functional.
    But I dont expect this to be a problem for "normal" PCs.

    • > But I dont expect this to be a problem for "normal" PCs

      It was a huge problem for "normal" PC's in 5150 cases with more than one MFM disk.

      Oddly enough, the fix was to fold the cables nicely *and* block some of the air vents with duct tape.

  • The Art Cable Folding (Score:5, Funny)

    by fdiskne1 ( 219834 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:27AM (#10699056)
    The Art Using The Word "Of".

  • Nothing is worst than a bunch of dangling... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dr. Evil ( 3501 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:28AM (#10699071)

    I've seen worse... like bad grammar.

    • Re:Nothing is worst than a bunch of dangling... (Score:5, Funny)

      by AnuradhaRatnaweera ( 757812 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:40AM (#10699156) Homepage
      I've seen worse... like bad grammar.

      `That's right,' said the Queen, patting her on the head, which Alice didn't like at all, `though, when you say "garden," -- I've seen gardens, compare with which this would be a wilderness.'

      Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: `-- and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill -- '

      `When you say "hill,"' the Queen interrupted, `I could show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.'

      `No, I shouldn't,' said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: `a hill can't be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense -- '

      The Red Queen shook her head, `You may call it "nonsense" if you like,' she said, ` but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!'

  • It is indeed an art (Score:3, Informative)

    by sita ( 71217 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:28AM (#10699072)
    Fold your cable wrong and you get nasty reflections from the corners. Careful there!

  • Folding cables (Score:5, Funny)

    by ralejs ( 779782 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:30AM (#10699080) Homepage
    Cables are living organisms. I fold them neatly and put them in a box. The next time I open the box its a complete mess.

    • Re:Folding cables (Score:5, Funny)

      by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:51AM (#10699231)
      This happens so often with me with audio cables that I always become mystified. Not to toot my own horn, but I can understand basic logic and scientific ideas. That being said, I do not naturally have an engineer's mind. I complained about this to my friend the ME one day, saying my audio cables are being angry, my telephone keeps wrapping itself tighter, my controllers are a mess.

      He shook his head and lifted up a controller by its free end (the end that connects to the console). He held it up high. To my amazement, it began to spinning. After a few seconds, it stopped spinning, and he laid it down. "There, now it won't wind up." I aws amazed at this release of Torquential Controller Energy and have since been obsessed with released the TCE from any cables I can find.

      Now, to the educated inteeligent elite of Slashdot (those apparently, with user IDs 138059 and under) the reckless childlike wonder that the hoi polloi of society attributes to these facts must be laughable. But I thought it was damn cool. Now, folding cables? Give me a folding proteins story any day over folding cables. Last I need this to be is PcCaseTechExtremeHardwareForumz.net.
      • Now, to the educated inteeligent elite of Slashdot (those apparently, with user IDs 138059 and under) the reckless childlike wonder that the hoi polloi of society attributes to these facts must be laughable.

        No offense, but I discovered that when I was five. All my parents phone cords were permanently kink free from that day on, and one of my great joys was going to someone else's house and having a new, monumentally twisted cord to spin loose.

        And that's why today I'm a socially dysfunctional nerd, errr, pr

      • Now, to the educated inteeligent elite of Slashdot (those apparently, with user IDs 138059 and under)

        Woot!

        [...] lifted up a controller by its free end (the end that connects to the console). He held it up high. To my amazement, it began to spinning.

        Actually, it is far better to lift up the heavy end. The more weight, the more time it will take, spinning back and forth, before it stops.

        Not much of a big deal with a controller, but anything longer, with significant weight on the end, and you can save a

  • The first thing that sprang to mind when I saw the picture was 'did they use glue for this?' And what kind of glue or ductape would work without dissolving the cables or turning them to a permanent sticky mess?
    Does anyone else have experience with this?
    • And what kind of glue or ductape would work without dissolving the cables or turning them to a permanent sticky mess?

      Not glue. Not duct tape. Cable ties. Small ones for small wires, larger ones for PATA and SCSI cables. If you want to tie off to part of the case, either wrap the tie around the case or thread the tie through a sticky base. For flat cables, you don't have to pull the tie TIGHT; you can leave it loose enough to keep the cable in place without mangling its shape.

      Haven't RTFA - it's toast. Bu
    • The cables will stay the way you fold them without glue or anything, especially the 80 wire cables. The older 40 wire cables are a bit softer, but still OK. You should always use 80 wire cables anyway.
  • They were /.'ed before I got to see the pretty swans.

  • News? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cheezemonkhai ( 638797 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:34AM (#10699105) Homepage
    There are a few options here:

    1) Use SATA/SAS/Fiber connectors

    2) Buy rounded versions of the parralel cables

    3) - Carefully shred the normal cables,
    - Wrap them in foil if you want
    - Wrap them in some pipe/heat shrink.

    Then all you do is bend the things and run them around the case with cable ties.

    How on earth is this news?
    Thats like saying use cables of only the length you need to make less clutter in your case.
    • Sad as it may sound, I read the article. The author brags about how much better the performance is from flat cables because they aren't bunched up like rounded cables are.

      I guess he never wondered just what the effects of folding his cables over and creasing them flat with an iron would be.

      Other shocking revelations include: "Use fewer drives so you don't need as many cables" and "Those mean guys at Voodoo wouldn't teach me their Kable Kung Fu, so I had to peek in the window of their case to learn this"

  • Nothing? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 91degrees ( 207121 )
    I can think of a lot of things that are worst (or even worse) than dangling cables. Being put through a mincing machine while someone was playing a scratched George Fornby record, for example.

  • The Cold Farting Bale (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Maybe the editor meant "The Art: Cable Folding", or "The Art Cable, Folding". It would have been nice if the editor had taken some more time proofing, then the poor bastard who runs the linked site could have finished his coffee before having to extinguish the remains of his server.

  • worst (Score:4, Funny)

    by X_Bones ( 93097 ) <danorz13NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:41AM (#10699167) Homepage Journal
    Nothing is worst than a bunch of dangling cables inside your computer case.

    ...except maybe your spelling?


    I kid, I kid...

  • Tricks I know (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:41AM (#10699170) Homepage Journal
    Here are some tricks I use to fold and hide cable in my pc.

    First, any ribbon cables usually go from motherboard to drive, and not a very long distance. This leaves a lot of slack ribbon. Fold up the slack and tuck it into a space in-between drives or in an emtpy 3.5" drive bay.

    Circle around back. Most modern cases have a pull out try with the motherboard on it. Then there is a metal frame and then there is another piece of metal which is the right side panel of the case. There are many things that need to go from the top of the case to the bottom Such as power cables for your front intake fan and such. Route these wires in-between the metal frame and the right side panel. Nobody can see them back there unless it is an all acrylic case.

    The emtpy 5.25" drive bays, if any, are a great place to put extra wiring. My PSU has many many more wires than I use, so far. So I take them all and just put them in the empty space under my dvd burner. The ribbon cable for the burner also travels into this space and then out of it again just a couple inches from the ide plug on the motherboard. Think of it as a bucket to put unused wires in where nobody can see them.

    • More Tricks (the REAL art of cable folding) (Score:5, Informative)

      by base_chakra ( 230686 ) * on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @11:14AM (#10699962)
      In the world of roadies and pro audio nerds, there's a method for cable folding/wrapping that I learned years ago. It's popularly called the "over/under method".

      The idea is to wrap the cable in such a way that, when thrown, it will unravel perfectly without any knots or tangles; but it's still useful for smaller cables because it trains the shielding in such a way that promotes flexibility and prevents twists, curves, and tangles.

      Stagecraft has a video demonstration [theprices.net] of how to do it (QuickTime, AVI, RealMedia), and the Internet Sound Institute has a tutorial [soundinstitute.com] with diagrams.

      • In the world of roadies and pro audio nerds, there's a method for cable folding/wrapping that I learned years ago. It's popularly called the "over/under method".

        The idea is to wrap the cable in such a way that, when thrown, it will unravel perfectly without any knots or tangles; but it's still useful for smaller cables because it trains the shielding in such a way that promotes flexibility and prevents twists, curves, and tangles.

        I'm a part-time audio nerd, but I manage a fairly good-sized PA system (

  • Folding cables. (Score:5, Funny)

    by AndyCap ( 97274 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:46AM (#10699195)
    You got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away and know when to run.
  • and why would you fold it?

    Do you buy the art cable with fur or shiny things glued on it, or was it painted in strange colors?

    After you investment in the Art Cable why would you fold it? It seems that folding it would reduce its artistic value.

    (The whole meaning is changed without the "of")

    • I buy my cables from Neiman Marcus and yes they have fuzzy collars with sparkly things on them. They cost about $350 and are only good for one cable folding fashion season. I have to buy my winter cables now. (can't be this seasons ugly duckling) I figure if I hold on to them for several years I can use them again. Hell, if bell bottoms can come backin style like a few years ago why can't IDE cables!!

      No, I didn't RFA as you filty /.ers won't let me. :(

  • Is this where computer building is going? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shoppa ( 464619 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:46AM (#10699201)
    Thirty years ago, if you built a computer it meant you went out and bought transistors, resistors, chips, etched a PC board, soldered them together, and toggled in your operating system. Then you hooked up a surplus teletype and built your own floppy disk subsystem.

    Today, computer building is dominated by "tech" articles about... folded cables.

    THIS ISN'T PROGRESS, PEOPLE!

    • It's fantastic progress (Score:3, Insightful)

      by samael ( 12612 )
      It means that more than 0.01% of people can put a computer together.

      It means that people have time for doing something more productive than toggling dip-switches in order to get the OS into RAM.

      I mean, sure, folding cable doesn't excite me at all, but I want computers to be easier to use, not go back to the days of punch-cards.
    • Ah, so when you light a fire, do you prefer rubbing two sticks together rather than just lighting a match?

      That's a kooky idea of progress.
    • Isn't it? The old problems were that no one had computers to work with, the new problems revolve around the parts we have. While I agree that cable folding is a retarded "tech" article (par for the course @ TTZ) it is indicitive about what the average computer hobbyist is interested in today.

  • Voodoo? (Score:5, Funny)

    by dorward ( 129628 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:46AM (#10699205) Homepage Journal
    The server has been slashdotted, so maybe someone who got to it early can tell me:

    "Do Voodoo Cable Folds involve a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle?"
    • "Do Voodoo Cable Folds involve a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle?"'

      No, actually the entire process is performed just by slinging insults at the cable.
  • Since I always compile everything with -funroll-loops I can't roll and fold my wires. Electrons do miss the curve if cables are bent too much you know !!!!

    Then, my office near the stairs, and I see NO point in preventing natural accidents like an IT manager falling down.

    BOFH
  • Since when was bending wires in your PC an Art? It's more of a skill- one that even monkeys could be trained to do.

  • What's this? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Art Cable ( 827487 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @10:15AM (#10699421)
    I'm folding?

  • Nothing is worst? (Score:4, Funny)

    by night_flyer ( 453866 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @10:19AM (#10699451) Homepage
    I always though brat was worst

  • Ultimate Troll (Score:5, Funny)

    by pklong ( 323451 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @10:22AM (#10699476) Journal
    This story could be the ultimate Slashdot troll, think about it:

    1. Put a worthless story up on the front page.
    2. Add grammatical mistakes.
    2. Turn the server off once it makes it to the front page.

    Watch as the worthless, pointless discussion racks up posts 99.9% of which are on the 3 subjects above.
  • Look! I folded my floppy drive cable into a dinosaur!

    Chip H.
  • ..and why are we folding him?

  • Nothing is worse? (Score:3, Funny)

    by wcrowe ( 94389 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @12:11PM (#10700337)
    Nothing is worst than a bunch of dangling cables inside your computer case.

    Are you sure there aren't maybe at least a few things worst[sic] than a bunch of dangling cables? Fire? Flood? Prostate cancer?

    Are dangling cables really such a travesty? Do we need to hold a telethon or something?

  • Nothing is best than a good Slashdotting.

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